February 11 is the anniversary of the overthrow of the U.S. fascist puppet, Shah (i.e., king) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled Iran from 1953 to 1979. It also marks the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and is celebrated by the fascist theocrats currently ruling the country.

In the U.S., major anti-IRI but pro-Shah/U.S. mobilizations were set for the East Coast in Washington, DC, and especially for the West Coast in Los Angeles. 

As revcom.us reported last week, the U.S. is fishing in the troubled waters of the IRI, which has recently been rocked by massive nationwide uprisings. For months on end, there have been unprecedented protests up against the brutal IRI crackdowns, protests sparked by the regime’s murder of Mahsa Jina Amini for “improper hijab”—violating the regime’s medieval, patriarchal dress code.

The U.S. has been putting its oars in the turbulence to try and hijack the movement and steer it to support its imperialist interests. One of their main oars now is none other than Prince Reza Pahlavi, bloodline heir to the monarchy now dressed in a cloak (and dagger) of “secular democracy.” The main message he peddled was/is “UNITY” behind him (and his Uncle Sam) of course. 

(For an analysis of Pahlavi’s program see On the 44th Anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution: No to Islamic Fundamentalism—No to Imperialism and Its Wannabe Partners!  Carry the Struggle in Iran Forward to Revolution and Overthrowing All Forms of Exploitation and Oppression!, revcom.us, February 13, 2023.)

Mixing It up with the Howling Fans of the Other Side

Supporters of revcom.us and the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners NOW (IEC) had assessed that the main rallies set for Los Angeles (a monarchist stronghold for decades) and Washington, DC, would likely be full of howling royalists and fans of Reza Pahlavi. While not totally sure what to expect, we decided to avoid being provoked by brain-dead, rabid monarchists and focus on moving through the crowd. We were determined to be there at such a perilous crossroad for the people of Iran, and to carry out our internationalist responsibility to reach undecided or confused masses who are debating Iran’s future, or don’t even know there is a momentous debate that is going on, and needs to go on! 

In both cities, we circulated among the crowd with an attractive flyer promoting key articles from revcom.us and cpimlm.org with QR codes so people can find these on their own.

In LA, the IEC put up two banners on the side of the rally, and a few people proudly took pictures in front of these. (See photo)

But first and foremost, we brought palmcards in English and Farsi of the new and historic interviews with Bob Avakian (BA). In each city, people took our flyers/palmcards out of curiosity with some saying “glad you are here.” A small number recognized BA’s name from his 50-year history of revolutionary internationalist support of the struggle in Iran. (See “It’s Not Our Embassy,” by Bob Avakian.) Some were happy to hear there is a movement for a REAL revolution in the U.S.!

For all the hype/publicity, massive Reza Pahlavi and “regime change” posters, and mobilizations on both coasts from several cities, our best on-site guesstimate is that there were about 2,000-2,500 in DC and some 10,000 in LA (to be generous), considerably fewer than in the rallies in the fall supporting the uprising. Several hundred in DC and at least a third of the crowd in LA got at least one piece of our literature from revcom.us and/or the IEC.

The no-surprise “surprise” was Reza Pahlavi showing up on the LA stage at the very end of the nearly three-hour (boring) rally. Preceding him were Democratic Party congressman Adam Schiff, Repub-fascist Michelle Park Steel, LA mayor Karen Bass, and various city council hacks. The demand to “Free Iran’s political prisoners” and Toomaj Salehi’s name were mentioned on stage, sprinkled with a few “Women, Life, Freedom” chants for good measure. But these were not the dominant themes of the day. Instead, several members of the former Shah’s army were honored by name on the stage.

It turned up on Twitter later that a monarchist henchman was openly present: “Parviz Sabeti, seen here in the middle, was the former director of the SAVAK's Third Division, the arm of the Shah of Iran's secret police which targeted political dissidents.”

As one comrade summed up: “Ours were the most widely distributed materials… but all this happened in the midst of a very suffocating environment… [with monarchists] presenting the struggle to overthrow the Shah per se as leading to the crimes of the Islamic Republic and putting the blame on those who were part of the fight against the Shah as the cause of this.” This is poison, but also popular slave mentality that revolution and revolutionaries are to blame for another set of oppressors hijacking the 1979 revolution.

As we moved through the crowds, it was clear that not everyone there was solidly in Pahlavi’s camp. Some had come to support the people rising up in Iran, and may have even felt used by the monarchists as we heard later. One person told us she cried from anger when Reza Pahlavi took the stage in LA because she “hates him so much.”

Debate Urgently Needed Over Iran’s Future

In the days since the February 11 rallies, several anti-Islamist, anti-monarchist forces in the Iranian diaspora have issued statements against lining up behind Reza Pahlavi. One launched on Instagram @notopahlavi says it is “A protest letter against the political legitimization of Reza Pahlavi by the Munich Security Conference.” This (February 17-19) reactionary conference of world imperialists and their lackeys invited Pahlavi to attend instead of IRI officials. (Russia was also excluded, but there was a large U.S. delegation.)

The Instagram handle @notopahlavi includes a statement on who they are that includes opposing “any attempt to hijack this struggle from outside Iran, whether by Reza Pahlavi and his allies, the authoritarian Mojahedin-e-Kalq [MEK] or any states.” The MEK is a pro-U.S. group now camped out in Albania which had invited John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani to speak to their members. Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence also visited and made speeches at their camp in 2022. In early February 2023, the MEK also met with a number of U.S. congresspeople. It is currently unclear how the U.S. sees using them or dealing with the IRI in this fierce battle for the future of Iran.

As revcom.us concluded in “Debating Iran’s Future: The Shah—Enlightened Modernizer or Fascist Butcher?” what is urgently needed in this struggle over Iran’s future is to break things open much more politically and ideologically over how and why:

Neither the Shah’s U.S.-backed monarchy nor the current Islamic theocracy offer any of the freedoms and liberation that the Iranian people are so courageously aspiring to. Nor is that possible so long as the system that is ruling over people is based on and tied to the whole international network of capitalism-imperialism—as the rule of both the Shah and the Ayatollahs have been.

What is required instead is spelled out by the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), which bases itself on the new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian:

To finally put an end to the seemingly endless suffering of Iran’s people requires a real revolution, made by millions of people and led by a revolutionary vanguard with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic theocratic fascist regime and liberating Iran out of the murderous fabric of the capitalist-imperialist system. This requires a communist revolution and establishing a “New Socialist Republic.”